by Chloe Carley
Brianna had absently nodded, still wondering what the housekeeper and maid had been discussing. The housekeeper seemed to be concerned about something, but Brianna wasn’t sure what that was. While caring for her ill father, the housekeeper had been very friendly until it seemed that her father’s condition was not going to improve. Then, suddenly, the housekeeper had become standoffish towards her. Brianna didn’t understand why. She decided that, after speaking with Percy, she would seek the woman out and try to make amends for whatever wrong she seemed to have committed.
Feeling slightly better, she dressed carefully in one of the new dresses Percy had procured for her, tugging at the lace around the neckline that dipped much lower than Brianna was used to. As she’d done with the other dresses Percy had bought her, she retrieved a spare piece of lace and carefully tucked it into the neckline, covering herself up to just above her collarbones. Her other dresses were much more modest, but she didn’t own one that hadn’t been mended a dozen times and wasn’t stained from working in the barn alongside her father.
She’d promised to pay Percy back for all that he’d spent on her, but she couldn’t even imagine how she would come up with enough funds to do so. Brianna was used to elegant sitting rooms and afternoon teas, not hard labor in the heat of the day or working with her hands until they were stained and bleeding.
Percy had assured her he had a plan and she was ready to hear it, so she could begin to salvage whatever she could of the situation. She’d decided in the early hours of the morning that she would find a way to pay Percy back and then she would purchase a ticket back to the East Coast where she could put her talents to the best use. Maybe as a governess or a school teacher to the social elite. She had a plan in mind, now she only hoped that Percy’s idea would come alongside it and help bring it to fruition.
Brianna carefully braided her hair and then secured the long dark tresses around her head, using the hairpins her mother had given her when she’d turned thirteen to secure the ropes of hair in place. Brianna’s hair was thick and when unbound it hung down below her waist. Her mother had always told her it would be a beautiful gift for her husband one day, but that she should keep it pinned up and her head covered when out in public. Brianna had worn a hat when outside, but she saw no reason to do so within the confines of Percy’s home. Besides, she had little hope of ever finding a suitable husband now with her father and his wealth all gone.
Brianna pushed that depressing thought aside, stiffened her spine and then left her bedroom. She carefully walked down the staircase, practicing correct posture and entered the dining room with a hesitant smile when she saw Percy was already there waiting for her.
“Good morning,” she greeted him.
Percy put down the paper he’d been reading and smiled at her. “Good morning, my dear. Please, come and sit down. Sarah, Brianna is ready for her breakfast.”
Brianna took the seat Percy indicated to his right side. “I can get my own breakfast…”
“Nonsense. I told you, the servants are here to serve you. Now, how did you sleep?” Percy asked.
Brianna looked at him and then dipped her chin, staring at her hands. “Not very well.” Percy was much older than she was, informing her several days after her arrival that he had just turned thirty-five. He was not only the founder of the town, but he owned most of the businesses in it as well. Rumors were that he’d gotten lucky early on in the gold rush and had then set up a town, preferring to make his fortunes by providing much-needed necessities to the other miners who had flocked to the area. Brianna had heard people talking about the man, and while he was very handsome and seemed to command respect wherever he went, most people gave him a wide berth and only dealt with the man because they had no other choice.
He was very tall, over six feet, and was always clean shaven, showing off the deep cleft in his chin. He had dark gray eyes, dark hair, and was the wealthiest man for miles. He lived right in the center of town and Brianna had been impressed with how many people he met with every day. Brianna had heard some of the rumors about Percy not being a very nice man, but her experience had given her an entirely different opinion. So far.
Percy reached across the short distance and squeezed her shoulder, catching Brianna off guard. It was not the first time he’d taken liberties and touched her person, but it still made Brianna feel slightly uncomfortable. There had been other instances where he’d come far too close to her, but each of those times he’d simply stared at her for a long moment and then backed away, allowing the tension of the moment to fade away. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation and more than once those encounters had left Brianna feeling confused and wary, almost as if she were in some sort of danger. Now, with his hand on her shoulder, those feelings were back and her intuition was urging her to flee. She didn’t understand these feelings and was inclined to store them away and analyze them a bit later. She held back the urge to shrug his hand away.
“You asked me yesterday about the future and I told you we would discuss that this morning.”
Brianna nodded, swallowing audibly before taking a shallow breath and attempting to calm the nerves that suddenly had butterflies churning in her stomach. Her nervousness moved straight to confusion and then to fear when Percy pushed her chair back and turned her around to face him, grabbing hold of both of her arms in the process.
“Brianna, you are a lovely young woman and exactly what I have been looking for.”
“I don’t understand,” Brianna murmured, shrinking back against the chair in an attempt to get him to remove his hands from her arms. Percy’s eyes were moving up and down her person in a way that made Brianna shiver and want to cover herself with a blanket to hide away from his gaze. She looked down, swallowing painfully as she tried to make sense of the words he was saying to her.
Percy either didn’t sense her discomfort with their proximity or didn’t care. He continued speaking to her. “Simply put, I have been looking for a wife for quite some time and I have decided that it shall be you.”
“Wife?” Brianna squeaked as she looked up at him. She started shaking her head, “I don’t want to get married…”
“Nonsense. Of course, you do,” Percy assured her, squeezing her arms just shy of it being painful.
“No, really. Mr. Smythe, I appreciate everything…”
“The name is Percy,” he reminded her, the warmth in his eyes starting to fade.
“Percy…I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for my father and me, but I have no wish to marry you or any man, for that matter.” I always thought I would marry someone for love like my parents. How could I possibly marry a man I don’t love? Brianna’s thoughts were racing around in her mind.
“You’re not thinking clearly,” Percy informed her. He squeezed her arms for another long moment, hard enough that Brianna flinched and wondered if she would have bruises there come morning. She tried to pull away but didn’t put much effort into the motion. Percy released her, a pensive look upon his face. “You do realize what being my wife would mean?”
Brianna wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head, “It doesn’t matter.” Brianna suddenly felt like she’d been backed into a corner. A trap she’d actually set for herself without meaning to. She’d availed herself of Percy’s wealth and position these last few weeks, never giving a thought to the price that might be required of her in doing so. Now, Percy’s wealth seemed more like a noose around her neck than a benefit of being under his protection.
Percy’s face clouded over and the smile left his lips, making him look more sinister and somewhat dangerous. “It doesn’t matter?” he asked softly.
Brianna shrank back as far as the chair would allow and shook her head. “I already offered to pay you back…”
“I’m offering to give you the world. The finest possessions money can buy, this house to call your own, servants to see to your every need… and you would turn that all down. You would turn me down?”
Brianna licked he
r lips and searched for the words to defuse the situation, “I’m not really turning you down, I just am not ready to get married yet. We don’t love one another—”
“Love has nothing to do with it.”
Love has nothing to do with marriage? But… The idea was so foreign to everything Brianna had always believed and been taught, she couldn’t make herself believe it.
“I realize these last few days have been trying, but I prefer not to wallow in the past. We’ll be married just as soon as…”
Brianna shook her head. “I don’t want to get married.”
Percy tapped the table with his fingertips and Brianna got the sense that he was growing angry at her persistent refusals. The image of the housekeeper and the maid talking came back to her mind and she wondered if the way Percy was currently acting had anything to do with the housekeeper’s apparent concern.
“You owe me. I took you and your father in, fed and clothed you, I even paid for your father’s funeral…”
“And I will pay you back. I just need to find a job.”
Percy gave her a sarcastic smile and settled back in his chair. “And just who do you think is going to hire you in this town? Do you think anyone here would hire you, knowing I was not in agreement?”
Brianna was seeing a side to Percy she’d only heard about previously. A side that she didn’t like and that she found very disconcerting. She swallowed and then murmured, “Well, I was thinking I might need to go to Sacramento…”
“No! That is out of the question,” Percy told her angrily.
“But I can teach or become a governess—”
“I’ve already told you there is no need for you to find a job. As my wife, you will want for nothing.” Percy slammed his hand down on the table, making her jump at the sudden movement.
Brianna shook her head, fear making her voice weak and shaky. “I don’t wish to marry you.”
Percy pushed himself to his feet. “We’ll see about that.” He reached down and hauled her to her feet, propelling her out of the dining room and back up the stairs as she scrambled for her balance.
“Wait! Percy, what are you doing?”
“You need some time to think things through,” Percy told her. He opened the door to the bedroom she’d been assigned and pushed her in.
Brianna caught herself before she could fall to the floor and she whirled around to see Percy watching her in a very cold and calculating way. “When you’ve come to your senses then you may send for me and we will resume our conversation. Until then, you will remain in this room.”
Brianna surged forward, grabbing the doorknob just as Percy pulled it shut. She heard the sound of the key turning in the lock as she twisted the knob, trying to get the door to open. “Percy! Mr. Smythe! Please don’t do this. I’ll pay you back. Please let me out of here.”
Brianna pounded on the door until her fists hurt, tears streaming down her face as she realized that very few people even knew she was in Percy’s house. The servants did, but they were very loyal to their employer and she knew without asking they wouldn’t give her any assistance. She rushed to the window, but it had been nailed shut and wouldn’t open. She thought about breaking it, but that kind of violence was not something Brianna had ever participated in and she couldn’t make herself do something so destructive.
She finally gave up, returning to the door and sinking down onto the floorboards. She let her tears fall freely as she leaned her head against the wood, her heart filled with despair as she realized her situation was much worse than she’d imagined. It now seemed hopeless unless she caved to Percy’s demand that she marry him.
Chapter 2
One week later.
Percy’s Crossing, California…
Morgan and Spencer rode before the wagon as they entered the small town, looking left and right as they tried to gauge what kind of town Percy’s Crossing was. They’d experienced everything from rough mining towns to small communities where everyone belonged to the same church during their travels these last six weeks. All three brothers had learned to be quiet observers before deciding to settle in a town overnight. There had been times where camping in the wilderness was much preferable to the goings on in the town.
“Looks like a decent place,” Spencer commented quietly as they rode past the general store. The small town held several dozen buildings including a jail, a livery, and the largest building on the street: the saloon. An elegant house stood in the middle of the town and several additional saloons occupied the other side of the street with a small bank right between them. “It looks like a nice, quiet town.”
Morgan wasn’t so ready to make that assumption as it was still the middle of the day. “Time will tell. Let’s head to the livery and stretch our legs a bit. I wouldn’t mind sending a letter to Mom and Dad letting them know we’re here.”
“But, we’re not technically at Uncle Otis’ ranch.”
“We’ll be there tomorrow, the next day at the latest. According to his letters, the ranch is twenty miles from Percy’s Crossing. We can cover that distance in a single day if we get an early start.”
“That’s true, but we’ve been pushing pretty hard. Most of those folks we left Salt Lake with are probably still several weeks out from reaching their destinations.”
“I saw no reason to slow down and not make use of every hour of sunlight. Besides, the sooner we get to the ranch, the sooner we can get back to a normal way of living that doesn’t include sitting atop a horse all day long.”
“Amen to that,” Spencer commented. He pointed toward the end of the street where a large three-story house stood with a painted sign designating it as the boarding house. “Do they get that many traveler’s through here?”
Morgan looked at the large building and shook his head. “I wouldn’t think so. The only way of getting here is by horse or wagon, but, let’s not judge anything yet.” Morgan led the way towards the corral and the large barn with the livery sign attached over the doorway. He let his horse slow down until he was even with the wagon. “Pull the wagon in at the livery and we’ll stretch our legs for a bit.”
Riley nodded and fifteen minutes later all three brothers were casually walking down the wooden boardwalk toward the post office. Riley was the first to notice they were drawing the attention of the townsfolk. “We’ve got eyes on us.”
Morgan had noticed the townsfolk’s interest and he nodded. They were still several buildings away from their destination when two large men dressed in jeans, cowboy hats, and boots stepped out of the large house just in front of them.
“Gentlemen,” Morgan greeted them, stopping with his brothers when the two men blocked the sidewalk.
“What brings you boys to our fair town?” the largest man asked. He was a tall man but not nearly as tall as Morgan and his brothers, all of whom were six foot two or taller.
“We’re just passing through. We thought to stretch our legs a bit and see about spending the night in town. Does your boarding house have a bathing room?” Morgan asked, watching the men carefully as his intuition was making him antsy.
“The boarding house is all full up I’m afraid,” the other man told him with a smile that was more like a sneer. “Where did you say you boys were headed?”
Morgan didn’t like the man’s tone and shook his head. “I didn’t. That’s too bad about the boarding house, but we’re used to camping out. We’ll take care of our business at the post office then.”
“Why don’t you boys join us at the saloon afterward for a drink?” the tall man asked.
Morgan inclined his head. “That’s mighty neighborly of you to offer, but my brothers and I don’t take much to alcohol.”
His comment got a chuckle and a sneer from both men. “What, you some of them religious folks?”
Morgan refused to answer the question and instead replied, “Religion hasn’t anything to do with wanting to remain in control of our actions. Have a good day, gentlemen.” Morgan stepped off the boardwalk and walked
around the men, his brothers close on his heels, and then calmly walked to the post office.
“What was all of that about?” Spencer whispered for his and Riley’s ears.
Morgan kept his eyes forward. “I don’t know, but until we get a chance to talk to Uncle Otis, let’s steer clear of this town for now. We’ll send a letter off to Mom and Dad and then we’ll cover a few more miles before we make camp for the night.”
“I was actually looking forward to taking a real bath,” Riley murmured.
“There’s a large stream between here and the ranch according to the map Uncle Otis sent along. You can bathe there,” Morgan told him.
“Fine,” Riley told him. “What in the…”
Riley’s astonished voice caused Morgan to stop and look to where his brother’s gaze was fixed. The large boarding house had come alive in the last few minutes and now, half a dozen immodestly clothed women had exited the front doors and were lounging on the front porch.
